In general, an intarsia pattern knitted fabric as shown in FIG. 5 is well known as a typical knitted fabric knitted by a flat knitting machine. FIG. 5(a) shows an example of a knitted fabric in which an intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3 of a diamond-shaped pattern is knitted in a part of a front body 2 of the sweater 1 and a grand pattern knitted fabric 4 is formed in the remaining part of the same. A back body opposite to the front body 2 is knitted in parallel with the front body and is jointed thereto at both ends thereof so that the sweater 1 is produced in the form of a seamlessly knitted tubular fabric. Rib knitted fabrics 5, which are called “the rib”, are knitted at a bottom of the front body 2 and at a bottom of the back body, respectively. FIG. 5(b) shows an example of a knitted fabric in which an intarsia pattern knitted fabric 8 of a vertically-striped pattern is knitted in a part of a front body 7 of a sweater 6 and a grand pattern knitted fabric 9 is formed in the remaining part of the same.
FIG. 6 shows a needle arrangement for knitting the tubular knitted fabric incorporating the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 as shown in FIG. 5 by the four-bed flat knitting machine. The basic structure of the four-bed flat knitting machine and the method of knitting the tubular knitted fabric by using it are disclosed by and are already known from e.g. JP Patent Publication No. Hei 1-57173 (corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,483) by the applicant of this application. The rib 5 of the front body is knitted with needles of a front lower needle bed (hereinafter it is referred to as “the needle bed FD”) and needles of back upper needle bed (hereinafter it is referred to as “the needle bed BU”), and the rib of the back body is knitted with needles of a back lower needle bed (hereinafter it is referred to as “the needle bed BD”) and needles of front upper needle bed (hereinafter it is referred to as “the needle bed FU”).
When a course of the rib 5 of the front body is knitted, back stitches of the rib of the back body knitted with the needles of the needle bed FU are all transferred to the needles of the needle bed BD and held thereon. On the other hand, when a course of the rib 5 of the back body is knitted, back stitches of the rib of the front body knitted with the needles of the needle bed BU are transferred to the needles of the needle bed FD and held thereon. In short, when the front knitted fabric is knitted, the back knitted fabric is attached to needles of the needle bed BD, while on the other hand, when the back knitted fabric is knitted, the front knitted fabric is attached to needles of the needle bed FD, whereby the front knitted fabric and the back knitted fabric are knitted in an overlapped relation. The ribs 5 are formed in the tubular body in this manner. Following the ribs 5, the body is knitted with a plain-stitch structure requiring no stitch transference described above, and the front body is knitted with needles of the needle bed FD and the back body is knitted with needles of the needle bed BD. When a different knit structure, such as a links or a moved pattern, is inserted in the body, back stitches thereof are transferred by use of needles of the opposite upper needle bed in the same manner as in the knitting of the ribs 5 so that the knitting is performed with the stitch transference.
The intarsia pattern 3, 8 is knitted using a yarn feeding member, such as a yarn carrier (hereinafter it is simply referred to as “the carrier”), separate from the one used for the grand pattern knitted fabric 4, 9. The front body 2, 7 and the back body are knitted with the needles A, B, C, . . . of the lower needle beds indicated with capital alphabet letters. The needles a, b, c indicated with small alphabet letters are the needles of the upper needle beds. In the illustration, a knitting yarn of the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 is indicated by a heavy line and a knitting yarn of the grant pattern knitted fabric 4, 9 is indicated by a thin line.
A plurality of yarn guide rails are suspended over the needle beds, though not shown, and a plurality of carriers are carried on the yarn guide rails in such a manner as to be slidable therealong. The carriers are moved by and are movable in association with cams provided in the carriage reciprocally movable over the needle beds so that the knitting yarn can be fed from a yarn feeder of the carrier to any needle on the needle bed. In each course knitted, the carrier used for knitting the intarsia pattern part 3, 8 is brought to standstill in the vicinity of a boundary between the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 and the grand pattern knitted fabric 4, 9 until it is used again for knitting the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 in the next course. In other words, separate carriers are used for knitting the neighboring knitted fabrics confronting each other across the boundary therebetween. Due to this, the carriers are intricately interrelated in the vicinity of the boundary between the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 and the grand pattern knitted fabric 4, 9. This causes possible problems of interference of the adjoining yarn feeders of the carriers; abutment of a front end of a needle which is brought into knitting action with the carrier which is in the resting state; and a yarn catching problem that when the grand pattern knitted fabric 4, 9 adjacent to the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 is knitted, a knitting yarn extending from a final loop of the intarsia pattern knitted fabric 3, 8 to the yarn feeder of the carrier which is in the resting state may be caught in by a front end of a needle.
Consideration has been made of an intarsia-pattern-knitting carrier capable of forcing the yarn feeder of the carrier to swing and shift back and forth with respect to a traveling direction thereof when the intarsia pattern knitted fabric is knitted. For example, the applicant of this application discloses in JP Patent Publication No. Sho 61-51061 a carrier that can force the yarn feeder of the carrier to swing and shift so that the knitting yarn can be extended substantially vertically from the final loop when the carrier is put in the resting state and a method of knitting an intarsia pattern using the same carrier. By using this carrier capable of shifting the yarn feeder, a plurality of intarsia patterns can be inserted in a course when knitted with the carriage having a plurality of cam systems. JP Patent Publication No. Sho 61-23300 discloses a related art that lower end portions of the carriers having yarn guidable holes are vertically shifted from each other projecting into a space between adjacent needles, thereby avoiding the interference of the carriers.
The applicant of this application previously proposed in JP Laid-open (Unexamined) Patent Publication No. Hei 10-1852 a method of knitting an intarsia pattern knitted fabric inserting the intarsia pattern therein, while knitwear, such as a sweater, is knitted in the form of a tubular knitted fabric. The publication discloses two optional ways as the method of knitting a tubular knitted fabric in which the intarsia pattern is designed in the front knitted fabric. It discloses in FIG. 2 a first embodiment wherein when the back body having no intarsia pattern is knitted in the back needle bed, the respective carriers are reversed whenever they reach boundaries of the intarsia pattern of the front body, so that the back body is knitted in a divisive manner to prevent an interference of the carriers and an unwanted yarn catching. Specifically, when a course of the back body at its grand pattern part opposite to the intarsia pattern is knitted, the following two steps are taken: a) after the carrier for intarsia pattern use is kicked back and shifted to a position within an intarsia pattern region, the grand pattern part is knitted up to near the intarsia pattern, and b) after the carrier for intarsia pattern use and the carrier for grand pattern use are kicked back and shifted to a position outside of an intarsia pattern region, the remaining grand pattern part is knitted. It also shows in FIG. 3 a second embodiment wherein when the back body is knitted, the carrier as was used for knitting the intarsia pattern of the front body is moved back to a position outside of the entire width of the knitted fabric, to prevent the interference and the unwanted yarn catching.
In the first embodiment disclosed by JP Laid-open (Unexamined) Patent Publication No. Hei 10-1852, the shuttle knitting is performed when the back body is knitted. As described in the publication at paragraph [0011], the shuttle knitting involves the problem that the stitches become dense at locations between which the carriers are shuttled, causing disfigurement of the knitted fabric. This problem can be dealt with by decreasing the density of the stitches formed with the needles at the reversing positions, but the adjustment of the stitch density is complex, taking a lot of time and labor. In addition, since the back body must be knitted in a divisive manner, rather than in a single dash, the productivity is reduced. In the second embodiment, there is no need to do the shuttle knitting, but it is necessary that the knitting yarn is fed to the yarn feeding member from directly above, as described in the publication at paragraph [0012]. Thus, limitation is put on the method of yarn feeding, putting limitation on the number of yarn carries used.
Using the carrier for intarsia-pattern use as disclosed by JP Patent Publication No. Sho 61-51061 can relax the limitations on the number of yarn carriers used and on the method of yarn feeding. It can also eliminate the need of doing the shuttle knitting, thus eliminating the need of adjustment of the stitch density at the boundaries of the intarsia pattern. However, it is found that the unwanted yarn catching problem involved in the knitting of the tubular knitted fabric mentioned above is not always solved by it. This is because even the carrier having the yarn feeder of changeable in position cannot always be stopped at the boundaries of the intarsia pattern with sufficient accuracy.
FIG. 7 shows the state in which the final loop of the intarsia pattern is formed, for example, by a needle K of the needle bed FD, and a yarn feeder 10 of the carrier is in the resting state. In FIG. 7, for the purpose of better understanding, the needles of the upper needle beds and those of the lower needle beds illustrated are shifted in phase so that they are made visible in the drawing. But, in the actual knitting machine, the upper needles and lower needles put on their respective needle beds are respectively common in phase with respect to a longitudinal direction of the needle beds. New loops of the intarsia pattern are formed from a knitting yarn 11 by needles K, L, M and old loops 14 are knocked over therefrom. When the yarn feeder 10 of the carrier is stopped at a position within the range of A, the unwanted yarn catching problem that the knitting yarn 11 extending from the needle K of the needle bed FD to the yarn feeder 10 is caught in by a needle of the needle bed BD does not incur. Although the range of A is extended to a position slightly beyond a needle J of the needle bed BD owing to a level difference between the yarn feeder 10 and the needle K, it is hard to always stop the yarn feeder 10 at a position within the range of A, in view of the stopping accuracy. A carrier of the type movable with and by a fetching pin provided in the carriage is designed to stop partway along the length of the yarn guide rail when the fetching pin is disengaged from a catching pin. The carrier and the yarn guide rail are required to have properties to satisfy a hard-to-exist-together relation that when the carrier is moved together by the carriage, a small sliding resistance is provided between the carrier and the yarn guide rail so that the carrier can move smoothly, while on the other hand, when the carrier is not moved together by the carriage, a resistance able to make the carrier hard to move is provided therebetween. The carrier and the yarn guide rail can be lubricated with oil and the like to provide a reduced sliding resistance, while on the other hand, adsorptive power of magnet can be used to provide enhanced braking performance. Nevertheless, it is hard to provide highly improved stopping accuracy of the yarn carrier. Due to this, there is the possibility that the yarn feeder cannot be stopped at a position within the range A where the unwanted yarn catching does not occur easily or can be stopped at a position outside of the range A where the unwanted yarn catching occurs easily.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of knitting an intarsia pattern knitted fabric that can prevent occurrence of an unwanted yarn catching even when a tubular knitted fabric with an intarsia pattern and the like is knitted by using a four-bed flat knitting machine and also can eliminate the need of the shuttle knitting described above to provide improved productivity.